8 Keys To A Successful Retirement in 2017

Every person who’s been working for a long time looks forward to their retirement – the time when they could finally rest after years of labor. However, there are 8 Keys To A Successful Retirement in 2017 that have to be considered before retirement.

Decide when you are going to retire. Figure out your retirement date and once you are close to your retirement date, revisit and decide whether or not you might want to stay another year working or not. Staying at your job a little longer has advantages; one being you might be able to save up more money.In addition, putting a date on it certainly makes it feel more real and has the huge upside of allowing you estimate how much money you need to be able to pull it off.

Make sure that you are financially stable. Retiring from work doesn’t mean the bills will go away. Have a financial plan that lists how much money you have, how much money you will be receiving and see if that is enough for you to live off of. With that being said…

Consult a financial planner. A professional financial planner can help you build structure into your retirement plan and help you decide how much savings you need in order to live the lifestyle that you want. We recommend fee only financial planners. It’s better to invest $1,500 or so with a Financial Planner that can give you unbiased advice vs talking to someone and ending up with investments that don’t really suit what you want.

Cut down your expenses. Retiring sometimes mean less money coming in. Before you retire, slowly transition into living on less so that you can support your chosen lifestyle better.We could also write, “spend strategically” – for example does paying off your home make sense. If you’ve been an entrepreneur all your life (or perhaps a real estate agent) then it might make total sense, because your retirement income might be less. However, if you have a pension or a high social security income you might prefer to have all that equity at your disposal for retirement. A home financed is often referred to as cheap rent.

Realize that retirement isn’t the end, but could be the end of your income. By understanding this, you know that you have to get ready for the rest of your life financially. Find a wise investment that will help you generate income even as you are already retired.

Decide carefully if you would prefer to retire full time or part time. If retirement is already in the book for you but you still have hesitations, test it out by retiring part time. This is a good test of whether you are ready to take the next step or not.

Determine where you want to live. A lot of people decide to buy a new home before retirement due to different reasons. Some people want to downsize to a smaller house, or move to a state (like Florida) or community with a lower cost of living while some are fine with staying at the home that they already have. Find out if staying in the current house you live in is more efficient or if you would need to downsize.

Figure out what you want to do when you grow up. After retirement, what are your plans? Travel? Start a business? Go back to school? One trick is to find something that you’ve always been passionate about but have never had the chance to do. It’s never too late! There are many stories of people who have had major breakthroughs after retirement!